Pearl River Field Hockey Advances With Shootout Shutout

The Pearl River field hockey team broke into a cheer of "Stonewall Annie" moments after beating John Jay-Cross River in a shootout in the Section 1 Class B quarterfinals Tuesday at Pearl River.

Pearl River junior goalie Annie McBride earned it, shutting out John Jay through regulation, two overtime periods and the shootout to help the Pirates advance to the semifinals Friday at defending state champion Lakeland.

"She had the game of her life," Pearl River Head Coach Shane Carlacci said. 
She stopped a stroke. Multiple corners. During seven (versus) seven (in overtime), they had a handful of corners. She made great stops. She kept her calm. She kept her composure."

"I can't even tell you. It's an awesome feeling," McBride said. "We practice those all the time, those one-on-ones."

After two scoreless 10-minute overtime periods of 7-on-7 play, the teams went to a shootout. Each team would get five attempts, with an offensive player one-on-one against the goalie for 10 seconds. 

Junior Jackie Dowling finally scored the first goal of any kind in the game on Pearl River's second attempt, beating John Jay goalie Haley Martinsen. McBride then made a save on Careigh Zipkin on John Jay's third attempt. 

"She was patient," Carlacci said of Dowling's goal. "She was great. We practice it (the one-on-one-plays). Ten seconds can be a long time. She realy worked hard to bring the goalie out and get the shot in behind."

Pearl River's Courtney Ocasal give Pearl River a second goal in the shootout, juggling the ball on her stick as she ran past Martinsen before dropping the ball into the goal.

"That's Courtney," Carlacci said. "She had been getting caught up a little bit in the grass. She thought it would be better to keep the ball up high. She's done it in practice. They do it in her travel program. Who am I to tell her not to?"

McBride then stopped Hannah O'Reilly to clinch the victory for the Pirates.

That set up a semifinal trip to Lakeland, a 6-0 winner over Brewster Tuesday. The last time the Pirates faced the Hornets was two years ago in the playoffs, a game Lakeland won 9-0 on its way to a state championship.